The present disclosure relates generally to dental aligners. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to thermoforming dental aligners.
Dental aligners for positioning teeth can be thermoformed over positive molds of a person's teeth that depict a repositioned state of the person's teeth. Such a thermoforming process typically involves heating a material and then pressure molding the material onto the positive mold. However, traditional processes for thermoforming dental aligners are usually labor intensive and require a person to manually manipulate positive molds and materials throughout the thermoforming process. For example, some thermoforming processes may require a technician to insert a positive mold including thermoforming material into a heating chamber to heat the thermoforming material, and then to move the positive mold and thermoforming material to a forming chamber to thermoform the thermoforming material to the positive mold.
Positive molds for the thermoforming process can be created from a negative dental impression or a digital scan of the person's teeth. For example, to take a dental impression, a dental tray having a viscous, thixotropic impression material therein is fit over the dental arches of the person, and the impression material sets to a solid thereby leaving an imprint of the structures in the person's mouth. When removed from the mouth, the impression provides a detailed and stable negative of the person's teeth. Such a process has traditionally been performed in a dental office under the supervision of a dental professional, and therefore requires significant time and inconvenience. Further complicating the process, the dental office delivers the impressions to an outside vendor for manufacturing dental aligners, which can result in the person having to revisit the dental office to retake impressions or digital scans if any errors are discovered, such as an incomplete or inaccurate impression of the person's teeth and tissues.